William Stang

William Stang (April 21, 1854 – February 2, 1907) was a German Catholic prelate who served as the first Bishop of Fall River from 1904 until his death in 1907.

Biography

Early life William Stang was born on April 21, 1854, in Langenbrücken in the Grand Duchy of Baden (in present-day Germany). He received his early education at the local gymnasium and then attended the minor seminary of Sint-Niklaas in Belgium. During this period, American dioceses were actively looking for priests in Europe. While at the American College, Stang was recruited by Thomas Hendricken, bishop of the Diocese of Providence in the United States, to minister to German-speaking Catholics in Rhode Island. After his ordination, Stang taught for a few months at the Catholic University of Leuven in Leuven.

Stang immigrated to the United States in September 1878, settling in Providence, Rhode Island. The diocese assigned him primarily to minister to the German Catholic community while also serving as a curate at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Providence.

When the Vatican appointed Reverend Matthew Harkins as bishop of Providence in 1886, Stang became one of his closest advisors. In 1887, Stang received a Doctor of Theology Degree from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. After returned to Providence, Stang was a driving force behind the founding in 1892 of St. Joseph's Hospital in Providence.

In 1895, Stang travelled to Belgium to serve at the Catholic University of Leuven as vice-rector and professor of moral theology.

Throughout the 19th century, very few American religious sisters were available to teach in parish schools; they had to come from Europe and Ireland. During Stang's tenure, teaching sisters from the Holy Union order in France, fleeing secular regulation in that country, came to Rhode Island to minister to the growing Catholic French-Canadian population. Other Holy Union sisters came from Ireland to the diocese. Stang made it clear that he welcomed religious sisters of all nationalities. In his opinion, it was the priests who were most guilty of raising tensions between the ethnic groups in the diocese.

Catholic bishops of this era became concerned about the attraction of socialism to Catholic workers. A writer of several religious works, Stang authored a book titled Socialism and Christianity. It supported the rights of workers to organize in labor unions, but condemned socialism as anti-Catholic.

During his short tenure as bishop, Stang established eleven parishes in the diocese. One new parishe was St. Boniface, a German-language parish in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Stang once described divorce as a pernicious practice...contrary to the moral order and the law of Christ, and condemned Saturday dances as a source of scandal [that] must be stopped at once. During Stang's tenure, the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation founded Saint Anne's Hospital in Fall River in 1906.

Death and legacy In January 1907, Stang travelled to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for surgery to removed an intestinal tumor. The surgery was successful, but he developed an infection. William Stang died on February 2, 1907, in the Mayo Clinic at age 52. He is a member of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in East Providence, Rhode Island.

Stang was also a contributor to the American Ecclesiastical Review